With an application having a tabbed user interface, such as a tabbed web browser, a user can open multiple documents within a single window. After being opened, each of these documents is typically identified by a tab that remains visible to the user such that the user can then navigate to a particular opened document by selecting the tab identifying that document. When the tab is selected (as an “active tab”), an associated document is presented to the user in the window as the “active document” while other opened documents, associated with unselected tabs (“inactive tabs”), are hidden from the user's view as “inactive documents”.
While tabbed user interfaces provide numerous practical advantages, it is not surprising that as the number of opened documents increases in a window, it becomes increasingly difficult for the user to find a particular tab of interest. For example, consider a user writing a research paper. This user may use a tabbed web browser to peruse multiple web pages to find information of interest. Once information of interest is found, the user may then use another application, such as a word processor, and copy information of interest into a word processor's document. During this process of opening multiple web pages and context switching between the web browser and the word processor, the user is likely to find it increasingly difficult to keep track of a specific tab(s) of interest—such as the last tab they were engaged with or the tab(s) they wish to access next. To exacerbate this confusion, the user might be interrupted by incoming emails, telephone calls or other distractions during this process.
Unfortunately, current tabbing techniques typically present the user with a window containing relatively indistinguishable tabs arranged in a random, predefined or ad hoc manner independent of any association the tabs might have to one another. This leaves the user with little, if any, indication of whether or not a particular tab is a tab of interest or associated with another tab of interest. Furthermore, interacting with tabs in these situations can be time consuming and difficult for the user.